help with photos

How do you get a photo into your profile? I am trying one now for this posting. It only has a space for an url.... hmmmmmm?

Time to hear from Jville mom better known as ma MA

This is my first attempt at a blog.

Today was a "typical" spring day, starting out cold and damp and then warming up to high 50's this afternoon. I drove with Cora, my artist friend, 45 minutes out to a fellow artist's home in Shady Cove to our monthly Valley Girls' critique session. Cora and her husband are planning a move to Oahu soon. She is paring down her household items to a very few... each pound she ships is $2.00. It is a great exercise to go around your home and ask yourself, "Would I pay $2.00 a pound to move this?"

This afternoon I went through all my old paintings to see which ones I might resurrect with collages. This is the assignment for tomorrow's class. I thought of Cora as I was doing that and took a whole bunch of them to the recycle bin, they are beyond resurrecting and I no longer see a need to keep them. It was fun to see how far I had come from my first painting attempts. Spring is a great time to clear out and throw out "stuff". I seem to want to go through this every year when it gets warm enough to open the windows and doors and let the fresh air in.

vegas, baby!!

OK - my first post here... writing under the "nom de plume" of OhTall1, but it's just me, E.P.M.

OK... so what's up w/me?

I just got back from a 3 day conference in Las Vegas, which is definitely not somewhere I would choose to spend time.

Cons: Way too much cigarette smoke, lots or required/recommended schmoozing, and the whole showgirls / sequins / Elvis / neon zeitgeist.

Pros: Meeting more people who I work with, a very fun Pecha Kucha night, and the keynote speech by one Mr. Bill Clinton.

That's right, William Jefferson Clinton was the keynote speaker at this conference. He was smart, funny, engaging, and just really likeable. I have to say, I was a bit star-struck.

cube wall creativity

here is a funny little set up of things at the top edge of a co-workers cube wall

plastic slug, twinkie, frog toy

Austin trip, day 2

Sunday was as gorgeous as it gets and several locals reassured me that this is, indeed, the best time of year for weather in Austin. I figured out how to escape the whole crazy freeway system and drove around the University of Texas and then down along Duncan Park on North Lamar Blvd, where I saw lots of people out and about, dogs romping in the creek that ran parallel to me as I neared Town Lake. Dogs offleash enjoying a creek! It's a miracle!

I passed a huge REI and Whole Foods and then crossed a bridge to South Austin, where I had read that the 'weird Austin' lives strong.

There were lots of people out in kayaks and canoes on the lake having what looked like a purely delightful time.

South Austin looked like a lively, colorful mix of Chico (little bungalows) and South of Market (artistan things, funky restaurants) and Todos Santos (the color, the Mexican influence). I visited a strip of funky fabulous stores on South Congress and had a lovely lunch. I was hoping to buy some boots at Allen's, but the prices were serious, so I decided to wait until a later date. But the boots were divine. I think I may have drooled when I saw a tan pair with amazing pink detailing. I just couldn't justify $400 for them, despite their charms.

I think my favorite store was "parts & labour", which stocks things made by local artisans - handbags, melted LP bowls, jewelry. I like supporting that kind of enterprise. I fell in love with and acquired a vinyl messenger-style bag with a funny robot on it, but had to leave behind the purse with an authentic Dodge "Swinger" emblem on it. Sigh. The artisan who made my bag is Milinde Lawless.

Drove back up through downtown and saw what I found out later is the very recently imploded Intel building. (As in, they set off the explosives this morning!)

Got totally frustrated trying to navigate back to my hotel. I think the freeway up in North Austin should get a D minus on usability.

I had my lovely leftover ribs for a dinner with the Oscars, although I had to wait for them to thaw. Somehow my little refrig in the hotel room was jacked up high and froze everything. After waiting an hour or two and eating cold ribs and beans, I then of course discovered that all along there had been a microwave cleverly hidden in the cabinet above the refrigerator. Doh!

Austin trip

Update from this week's trek to check out Austin, Texas (where my new company is headquartered): There was a massive swirl of reddish brown clouds over the Dallas-Fort Worth airport today, where I was supposed to land around 1 pm and then transfer on to Austin. It looked like the sky had spent a summer at Silver Lake and picked up that fine volcanic dust all over. I was reading Kinky Friedman's " The Great Psychedelic Armadillo Picnic: A "Walk" in Austin " which had me chuckling to myself. We circled DFW for about 1/2 hour but then my flight became just one of 400 that were canceled in and out of DFW today and we headed over to land in Houston.

It was muggy and hot, but the people were gracious and lovely. On the advice of the friendly locals, instead of sitting there for 6 hours waiting for a flight to DFW and then another flight to Austin, I grabbed my Hertz rental car at the Houston Airport (instead of Austin) and headed to Austin by car, which folks told me would be about a two and half hour drive. Houston has some seriously funky circle roads but I did find the highway heading west at long last.

The country-side looked a lot like California's central valley, although I saw more guns shops than I see at home and there was no friendly fringe of mountain range anywhere in the distance.


My favorite road sign was just a little green road sign with an arrow and the name of the town, to help one turn right to get to "Dime Box." As I got closer to Austin, I started getting some stellar radio stations. I loved KUT (University of Texas), which was playing some fantastic old rhythm and blues music. Made me feel like I was in a movie, driving the big open Texas road and having a blue-sy funky day. Sadly, I then got lost as I got into town and shot right out of Austin southwards toward San Antonio, but not before I got to see the lovely capital dome glowing in the night.

They have some very weird freeway methodology around here. You can exit the freeway but you can only then (seemingly) enter a side road going the same way as you were going on that freeway, so if you pass some place you want to visit, god help you. It made me nearly scream.

But I am finally here at the elegant La Quinta Mopac North, next to the glamorous IBM Building in the Austin neighborhood that most resembles Silicon Valley. I've ordered some BBQ ribs to be delivered to my room and that should help take the edge off the whole getting lost freak out. I had this image of Austin being much smaller and never imagined these crazy freeways going every which way. Hopefully I'll find some nice walkable spots tomorrow.

They just delivered my baby back ribs dinner from County Line and it's like HALF A PIG! Seriously, no one could eat eighteen ribs for dinner, could they??? Dear Lord, I might be in Tejas.

(20 minutes later)
By the way, I almost ate that whole half a pig. I can now understand how the feeding frenzy based on the massive deliciousness could just take one over.
If only I was here with a buddy, here's where I'd go tomorrow - Stubb's for their "Gospel Brunch!" I've never heard those two words go together but it's bee yoo tiful.